State HP #3....We took Jacks Knob Trail up and had great weather. The summit was packed with peeps, but had what was probably the nicest lookout tower to date. It's always interesting to see how some states appreciate their highpoint and others could really care less. The Bavarian town of Helen, down the road, was a riot. An interesting place to stay, tourist trap or not, i'm German ok.

HP #18. Beautiful day, gorgeous views from the top. Tower was closed because it was very icy. Park ranger showed me where the USGS marker was below the tower. Part of Thanksgiving Long Weekend high pointing trip on 7 Southern States: AL, TN, GA, SC, NC, FL, MS

Another highpoint completed. Beautiful day for a stroll to the top of Georgia. Nice hike up, but the mass hoards of people took a little away from the view. Also, they had closed the tower due to "potential for ice". Yes, it was cold up there, but the tower is completely enclosed, I don't think ice is really such a problem to prompt of closure of the tower.

Two hours and twenty minutes from the archeological site parking lot to the tower doors. The first thirty minutes reminded me of Plateau Mtn in the Catskills. Nice and steep. The two foot squarish boulder on the trail made a nice half way marker. Beautiful views from the ridgelines too. Quite a horde at the summit but the museum they had was well worth the trip.

Climbed Brasstown Bald today. Was visiting Brother-in-law in ATL and couldn't resist. The drive up was scenic. I took many pictures with a new camera that dumped it's memory on the way back home. How disappointing. The guy at the ranger station at the top was really cool. He let me into the gate that lead down the stairs. The marker is located right inside the door to the left on the floor. He was helpful in explaining the history of how the marker came to be located behind a door and elevated about 20 ft above its original position. I also hiked about a 1/2 mile down Jack's Knob trail before I had to turn back due to time. Great trip. Next time I will take a reliable camera!

The first HP we had to pay to see... I guess we should have done the longer hike option. The museum is fun. If you want to see the USGS marker you have to ask the ranger because it's just barely behind a locked door that goes to a set of stairs that's off limits to the public. Why they didn't just build the stairs six inches further away so the marker was out in the open is beyond me, but it gave my wife and I good laugh.

I am as reluctant to sign this log as I am to sign Sassafras Mountain's, as I took the easy way out by parking near the summit and shooting up from there. My original plan was to hike up the Jack's Knob Trail, but blisters from Mitchell (exacerbated by a run up Currahee) still needed some healing.

Picked up this pretty little peak on a business trip to Atlanta. I've just started out trying to climb the highest point of all 50 states. Made it up in the morning by 915 am. Thick cottony clouds hushed the valleys; the green peaks parted the clouds in regular intervals and it was hard to believe that 4.5 million people were just miles away to the south. After watching the film in the visitors center on the top of the peak, clouds rolled in and the view was gone.

My last state on the 3 state swing brought me to this beautiful North Georgia area. I drove out of Dahlonega Georgia at about 6 Am and landed in the parking lot of Brasstown Bald about a little over an hour later. The summit lot was completely shrouded in fog, in fact it was so soupy I could not even find the trail head leading up to the summit. I started walking up a service road that was closed and the trail intersected the road so I made my way to the top. I was bummed that I had no views because of the fog but I was the only person on the top which was really cool. I friend of mine told me about a town named Helen that was close by that is completely made to look like a Bavarian town so I had breakfast in town and that was also really cool!! A must see in fact..

This was the second time that my hiking and HP buddy, Mike, and I have visited Brasstown Bald (first time was in 1994?). With the increase of technology (digital cameras, etc.), we basically decided to redo and document the 18 HP's we had already completed along the east coast. The disposable camera/photos just didn't cut it. Beautiful weather today and a very informative visitor's center on top.

Second of a 6 state HP weekend. Flew into Knoxville, then hit the HPs for TN, GA, SC, NC, KY and VA. This is my 41st state HP. Surprisingly, I had the summit all to myself considering it was a Friday in May. Unfortunately, the tower wasn't open yet.

One of the best highpoint gift shops Ive seenDate Climbed: Aug 7, 2010

Had planned on making a real hike out of it but somehow missed the turnoff after finding the national forest sign and next thing I knew, I was in the parking lot. Still, I got some good leg stretching on the walk up from there and some nice views. First of two (TN) that day.